Festival of Lights 5K Race Report

On Saturday night, I ran my first 5K down here in Jacksonville. I figured I'd do a full race report, on everything from the race conditions to my performance. I came into the race with a 5K PR of 29:02, and I desperately wanted to beat it.

Race "Idea" + Charity Rating: 10/10
First Place Sports (the local running store) puts on this race annually. The race benefits the Children's Miracle Network, and it really is a family event. In keeping with the holidays, this race is held at night in San Marco Square, where the streets are lined with luminaries. There is a 1 mile fun run, followed by the 5K. I've never done a night time 5K before, so the idea of lights was really exciting to me. Everyone who ran was given a pair of jingle bells to tie to their sneakers. I totally forgot to tie mine to my sneakers, but it really added to the holiday theme of the race.

Right before the start of the 1 mile fun run

Set up/Parking: 9/10
This race was fairly easy to find. I'm new to the area, and even I was able to locate the start/finish area without the help of a GPS. Since San Marco is pretty small, parking was a bit of a mess. Everyone parked on the local streets, but my only complaint was that there wasn't anyone directing traffic. Narrow streets became even tighter with people parking on one side and trying to get by on the other. The funny thing is, everyone was calm. I didn't see anyone blowing their horns or getting impatient. That was nice to see.

Crowd/Energy: 10/10
I wish I had gotten more pictures of my fellow racers. There were a lot of people in Santa costumes and funky socks on. I even saw a lot of people wearing Christmas lights that lit up while they were running. Checking out the outfits of other runners is one of my favorite parts of racing. The energy on the course was great also. Since the race went through local streets, a lot of people were on their lawns cheering on the runners. All four half marathons I ran in New York were along basically the same course, and I never saw as many people out cheering on the runners as I did during this race.

The crowd, about 15 minutes before the 5K started

Corrals: 7/10
My one real complaint. Since I'm not that fast, I lined up toward the front of the middle of the pack. I asked a few people around me what their pace was, and most of them said around 9:00 a mile. When the race started, we all walked to the starting line so our chips could measure us as starting the race. Then we were off. Sort of. I was dodging people who were walking, 4 across, and seemed completely oblivious to what was going on around them. I know this usually happens in races, but it took about a half mile to finally get around everyone. People were dropping things and stopping to pick them up. I was in a panic, because a half mile is a long time in a 5K to be shuffled around. From what I hear, it was better this year than it had ever been before. Maybe signs at the start, so you could line up by pace, would have helped more.

Race Tech: 5/10
By "tech" I mean the timers. I don't run with a watch, because I've always had clocks on the course to tell me how I'm doing pace wise. When we started running, the clock at the starting area had the time on it - not the elapsed time since the start. After panicking in the shuffle at the start, I was relieved to see the first mile marker. The time on it? 5:10...5:11....5:12. I kept rushing along, mostly because I had no idea how I was doing. When we hit mile 2, the mile marker read nothing. Now I was really freaking out. I timed out the music on my playlist to be a rough estimate of when I had to cross the finish line to break my PR, but I couldn't remember what song I should hit at what mile. The mile 3/finish line markers worked.

Finish Line: 9/10
A complete mash up of people. But there were thousands of us there, so I wouldn't expect anything else. The race organizers did a great job of clearing lanes for people to walk through, and I was out of the finish line chute within about a minute. I was frustrated because I thought I missed PRing because of the starting line chaos, so I left as soon as the race was over. I usually do this though, because I never know anyone at races. There were a bunch of booths set up, and the entire Square looked like a great place to hang out for the rest of the night.

So after all that, I came home frustrated that I might not have beat my PR. I spent about $25 on the race, and I was upset that it may have been for nothing. The results were up online VERY quickly, so kudos to the timing people for getting that done. My final time? 28:37. A 25 second PR!

Overall I would absolutely recommend this race to anyone in the area. The race organizers did an outstanding job putting everything together, and the money raised went to a great cause. And as for nighttime races...I think I might be hooked.

Looking for a race....but not just any race

I have to admit, I'm a bit of a hoarder. When I was packing up my room to move to Florida from New York, I was surprised at how many things I had collected over the years. Old cat toys, weird headbands, shirts that I thought were being kept for some important reason.

But the thing I seem to hoard the most are old issues of Runner's World. When I first started running in January of 2009, I went to the local CVS (1/2 mile away...I drove there. My how times have changed) and bought the February 2009 issue of Runner's World. I got on a treadmill at my college's rec center, and ran for as long as I could with the speed set at 4.6 MPH. I've read that issue over and over and over, and I still have it.

And it's that way with every issue since. I've been a Runner's World subscriber since that issue, and every month is the same. I read the issue from cover to cover while on the treadmill/elliptical/stationary bike/stairclimber. I've kept every issue, and it's a pretty large hoard of magazines at this point. Now I'll just grab a random issue and read it during my workouts.

How is all this relevant? Last night I went to the gym, and after doing a solid round of strength training, I got on the elliptical with a random issue that I grabbed from the pile. This issue happened to be from May '09, with RW cover girl Kara Goucher. In her article, she says something that had me thinking...

"I need a race every month or I go crazy..."

I ran my last half marathon a little over a month ago, and I haven't done a race since. No 5K, no 10K, not even a mile race. My workouts lately have been going fine, but I'm worried that I have no real motivation. What am I training for? At this point I've been going to the gym because it's something to do and because I don't want to lose my fitness. But I want more.

So I've been looking for a race to run. I've told myself that I refuse to start training for a marathon until I can run sub 2:00 in a half marathon. My PR is 2:23, so I'm still a little ways away. I'd like to run another half marathon in May or June, so that I have more than enough time to train smart since I tend to overwork myself in training.

Where do I go? If I'm shooting for May or June, I have the option to run either in the southeast or the northeast, since my mom will still be living in the New York house at that point. Do I stay local and run a potentially very warm Florida half? Do I run the LI Half Marathon...again? Do I make a trip out of it and just travel to a random part of the country?

Decisions decisions...

No Place Like Home?

A few weeks ago I moved down to Florida from Long Island. I know - I went from an hour train ride from New York City to a 30 minute drive from a "city." I'm still young, and it's been kind of a culture shock so far.

So why did I move down here? Well for one, my dad came down here to work....3 years ago. He and my mom are still very happily married, but they left a thousand miles apart (some would say this is how they've been able to stay married!) and I saw my dad every few months. Within the next few months, they'll be selling the New York house and the whole family will be down here. I figured I might as well get a head start.

Why else? For lack of a better reason, and to quote Summer Finn from (500) Days of Summer, "boredom." I graduated college a year ago, did a semester of grad school, and have just been flat out bored with my life. Nothing improves that quite like a change of scenery, so here I am.

To be honest, things so far are no better down here than they were in New York. The few improvements have been the weather and the lower cost of living, but I've been kind of home sick. The job hunt has been going nowhere, mostly because I have no idea what I want to do. It's hard to even search for a job when you don't know what industry you want to work in.

Here's where my running comes in. My dad's boss is a season ticket holder for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and ticket holders get these coupon booklets for businesses around town. One coupon got me over $100 off my gym membership, and so far the gym is infinitely better than the gym I was using in New York - for just $5 a month more. I find myself going there way more than I went to the gym in New York. If I'm going to be bored, I'll at least be in shape.

But running has allowed me to figure out more about where I am. The local running store had a group run at the beach the other night. I only met 2 people, but it was a start. The New York me would never have gone out to run with people who I knew would be way faster than I am. I live in a pretty big neighborhood, with miles of road that I can use to run on. Last night I went almost 5 miles, and I didn't go anywhere near the main road.

I may not know anyone yet, but I have a familiar running route. For now at least, it's almost as much a home to me as New York.

Now to start that job hunt...